kjhp Korean Journal of Health Promotion Korean J Health Promot 2234-2141 2093-5676 The Korean Society of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention 10.15384/kjhp.2016.16.4.260 kjhp-16-260 Original Article The Mediating Effects of Loneliness on the Relationship between Smartphone Addiction and Dependent Personality Trait in Adults OkJeung Department of Counseling Psychology, Seoul Cyber University, Seoul, Korea Corresponding author: Jeung Ok, PhD Department of Counseling Psychology, Seoul Cyber University, 60 Solmae-ro 49-gil, Gangbuk-gu, Seoul 01133, Korea Tel: +82-2-944-5035, Fax: +82-2-982-4810 E-mail: oj256@iscu.ac.kr 01 2016 20 01 2016 16 4 260 267 01112016 19122016 Copyright © 2016 The Korean Society of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention 2016 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background

As the number of smartphone users is increasing, smartphone addiction is a recent concern. The purpose of the present study was to examine the mediating effect of loneliness on the relationship between smartphone addiction and dependent/ avoidant personality trait in Adults.

 Methods

A total of 550 adults (male 116, female 434) were selected and rated smartphone addiction scale, dependent and avoidant personality trait scales, and loneliness scale. Pearson correlation coefficients, Structural Equation Model Analysis and Sobel test using SPSS version 21.0 (IBM, New York, NY, USA) and AMOS version 21.0 (IBM, New York, NY, USA) were conducted.

 Results

Dependent and avoidant personality significantly were related smartphone addiction and loneliness. Finding in structural equation modeling indicated that the loneliness partially mediated the relationship between dependent personality and smartphone addiction, but did not mediated the relationship between avoidant personality and smartphone addiction.

 Conclusions

This study confirmed partial mediation effect of loneliness on the relationship between smart-phone addiction and dependent personality. This finding suggests that future intervention for smartphone addiction should focus on reducing of loneliness and proper coping with loneliness.

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Research model.

Confirmatory Factor Analysis results of measurement model in dependent personality model.

Research model and standardized factor loading values. Model fit analysis by SEM; df=51, χ2=198.83, RMSEA=0.073, TLI=0.936, CFI=0.091.

Demographic characteristics of participants (n=550)

Characteristics   Values
Gender Male 116 (21.1)
  Female 434 (78.9)
Age Less than 20 1 (0.2)
  20–29 123 (22.4)
  30–39 176 (32.0)
  40–49 199 (36.2)
  50–59 47 (8.5)
  Over than 60 4 (0.7)
Employment Employed 411 (74.7)
  Not Employed 139 (25.3)

Values are presented as number (%).

Comparison fit indices between research model and modified model in dependent personality model

  χ2 df TLI CFI RMSEA (90% CI)
Research model 2656.64 699 0.754 0.768 0.071 (0.069–0.074)
Modified model 198.83 51 0.936 0.951 0.073 (0.062–0.083)

Abbreviations: TLI, tucker-lewis index; CFI, comparative fit index; RMSEA, root mean square error of approximation; CI, confidence interval.

Path coefficients of the final model in dependent personality model

Path Non-standardized Standard Standardized P
coefficients error coefficients
Dependent personality → smartphone addiction 0.33 0.06 0.31 <0.001
Dependent personality → loneliness 0.59 0.09 0.37 <0.001
Loneliness → smartphone addiction 0.08 0.04 0.12 <0.05

Direct effect, indirect effect and total effect of the final model in dependent personality model

Independent variable Dependent variable Direct effect Indirect effect Total effect
Dependent personality Loneliness 0.37 – 0.37
Smartphone addiction 0.31 0.05 0.36
Loneliness Smartphone addiction 0.12 – 0.12

Mediating effects verification results of the final model in dependent personality model

Path Z P
Dependent personality → loneliness → smartphone addiction 2.26 <0.05